Bangert: Daniels wants 'fast action' on State St. plan

A new master plan, delivered last week, imagines State Street being transformed through West Lafayette and Purdue University. Purdue President Mitch Daniels says he’s all-in on the State Street master plan and that the university doesn’t want to see improvements roll out slowly.
(Photo:
Dave Bangert/J&C
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John Dennis was near Gatlinburg, Tenn., two weeks ago, on an annual motorcycle trip through the Smoky Mountains, looking over his shoulder for a marauding 500-pound bear, when Purdue University President Mitch Daniels called out of the blue.

Daniels the day before had received a final update on a report called "Re-State: A Master Plan for State Street" and wanted to compare notes with the West Lafayette mayor. Dennis said Daniels early on had told him he liked the concept of reviving a tired State Street from the Wabash River through campus and west to the new U.S. 231 bypass.

Getting Purdue on board — for real and when it counts — has been assumed crucial to a plan that positions the city for a new West Lafayette downtown Dennis craves along State Street, while allowing the university to get closer to a goal of a campus not dominated by vehicle traffic. The fact that Daniels called the mayor on vacation was, Dennis figured, a really good sign. Or a really bad one.

"But first things first. I told him: Let me tell you about this bear," said Dennis. The mayor had awoken that morning to the sight of a bear dismantling a hard-top hot tub cover, dragging it toward the woods and tossing it around the way a dog would a chew toy. "That was the excitement of the day up to that point.

"Then he said, 'Hey, about State Street,' " Dennis said.

Turns out Daniels was all in. Which means Purdue was all in.

And that's no small matter on a plan that is meant to transform State Street into a recruiting tool for Purdue and up the ante on quality of life intangibles in Greater Lafayette.

"I can tell you our whole conversation around this isn't: Do we do that? Our answer to that is: Yes, brother," Daniels said. "The question is: How fast, effectively, can we do this? And which parts come first? Questions like that."

Graphic showing the features of the State Street master plan.(Photo: Thomas Maxfield/Journal & Courier)

So how fast is Daniels thinking on a project that comes with no particular timeline or estimated price listed in a report delivered last week to the West Lafayette City Council by Indianapolis-based consultants with MKSK? Dennis has been the only one to toss out estimates, and even those clock in at "a big number" that "is going to be in the tens of millions."

"I'd like a little time on that," Daniels said. "I don't want to get ahead of our skis, as they say. But we all agree that an idea this appealing and with all the positive benefits it could bring to campus and community should not be some sort of 10-year, slow-drip endeavor."

Daniels said Purdue trustees have lined up behind the State Street master plan, a $197,900 partnership paid for by West Lafayette, Purdue and Purdue Research Foundation. He said he's already put some of the heavy lifting on Bill Sullivan, who started June 2 as Purdue's new chief financial officer and treasurer.

"He has a lot of basics to get his hands on," Daniels said. "But the last thing I talked about with him on Monday, on his first day, was this: Hey, Bill, once you get your feet on the ground, we're going to be looking at how we can finance fast action on this whole State Street thing. I gave him a copy of the consultant's summary to thumb through and get excited."

Hearing Daniels gush about a plan that includes a redesigned street, end to end, set up to be calmer, friendlier to pedestrians and cyclists, and ripe for new businesses is still a long way from cash on the barrelhead.

Some skepticism crept into the voices of city council members last week as they wondered out loud not only about how well proposed roundabouts — one at Tapawingo Drive and another at River Road — might play out, but also about the prospects of Purdue's sustained attention.

"I think they're interested. There's no question about that," said Peter Bunder, the 2nd District council member. But he hedged as he name dropped Wang Hall, a four-story, $38 million building getting ready to open on Northwestern Avenue later this year. Originally scheduled to house a heavy mix of commercial uses, along with room for academics, plans have changed to accommodate more room for Purdue's growing engineering programs.

That likely will leave West Lafayette with smaller property tax gains than originally thought when the controversial zoning plan was approved in 2011.

"That's the challenge for all of us," Bunder said. "If Purdue promises to do that now, how much do you count on that promise that Purdue will be there over the years it's going to take to get this done?"

Daniels' response: "Let's go figure it out. I think we have the same goal in mind."

Dennis has been blunt in recent weeks about the aesthetics of the area when compared to other university towns — punctuating things with a big thumbs down he says he gets when broaching the subject with anyone on or near campus.

He has his eyes on starting with the section from the Wabash River to Grant Street, in the West Lafayette Village area, a business district next to campus.

That is roughly along the lines of the report's recommendations to stage State Street work in phases, starting at the eastern and western edges and working toward the middle. That recommendation is driven by needs to finish work on what's known as the perimeter parkway — a series of streets that ring campus that need to be designed to carry traffic that now depends on State Street. The perimeter parkway work alone was estimated at $29 million in a 2005 Tippcanoe County Area Plan Commission report. No updated estimates have been worked up a decade later, but officials assume the price will be more expensive.

"That's something we have to figure out, too," Daniels said.

Dennis says the city likely would pull revenue in some fashion from a tax increment financing district along State Street to get any work done.

"What we'll need to find out is, what is it that people want to see down there?" Dennis said. "We have some cool structures along there and we'll want to preserve those. But we'll need to bring other, outside investments that aren't just going to be franchise restaurant, franchise restaurant, franchise restaurant, bar. … A lot of folks haven't looked at West Lafayette as a potential retail market. We think we can change that mindset."

Dennis said he wants to go quickly — "sort of a subjective term. … In local government, quickly is somewhere around three to five years."

But he seems convinced that Purdue is on that same subjective timeline. And that State Street will get done. He says a phone call he took in the Smoky Mountains, with a bear somewhere in the background, is proof enough.

"I (told Daniels), 'You know what, for the city of West Lafayette, that's a historic opportunity,' " Dennis said, recalling that morning. "I said, 'It would be a chance to validate our annexation, validate our partnership and then, with combined resources, to actually do something that no one else has done. And that is to build a city, build a downtown.'